Pisanello

Pisanello (1395?-1455?), Italian painter, draftsman, and medallist, who was the last and most brilliant artist of the ornate, courtly International Gothic style. Originally named Antonio Pisano, he studied under Gentile da Fabriano, whose graceful, detailed style he inherited. Pisanello produced paintings, frescoes, drawings, and portrait medallions for the courts of Milan, Rimini, Naples, Mantua (Mantova), Ferrara, and Verona. His well-known small painting, Princess of the House of Este (1443?, Louvre, Paris), exemplifies his style; it shows a woman in profile against a tapestrylike floral background and is characterized by elegant long lines, clear colors, and exquisite drawing of details.

His frescoes, such as his masterpiece Saint George and the Princess (1438, Sant'Anastasia, Verona), show to the greatest extent his precise and loving representation of the natural details of human figures, animals, flowers, and objects. His numerous drawings are also fastidiously detailed, and in some of them, particularly those of female nudes, he achieves a strength of three-dimensional modeling that establishes an important link between the Gothic and Renaissance styles.